We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate and Meraki MX based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Fortinet FortiGate and Meraki MX have a similar user rating regarding ease of deployment, pricing, service and support, and ROI. In terms of features, users of Fortinet FortiGate had mixed reviews on the interface, and felt the reporting feature needed updating. On the other hand, users of Meraki MX felt there was a need for better and more monitoring capabilities.
"From the firewall perspective, the rules and policies are very sufficient and easy to use."
"The solution is stable."
"The user interface is relatively easy. The devices are easy to deploy and figure out when you have experience with other security appliances."
"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."
"It's very fast and easy to configure."
"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"The base firewall features are quite valuable to us."
"The security level of our organization has changed by using Meraki MX Firewalls. We didn't have the UTM before, but now we have sandboxing, tray scanning, attack preventions and monitorization. Our security level has improved."
"Meraki makes it easy to be secure and know where the holes are to fix them. We have been fixing anything that we have ever found for 20 years. We keep up-to-date with firmware upgrades. We just try to stay on top of everything for security, like maintaining updates and getting rid of old systems. I feel like we're on top of it."
"Meraki MX offers advanced filtration options, plus it behaves like a router and a firewall at the same time."
"The product is quite secure, easy to manage, and well-connected with other devices."
"I like the automatic firmware updates. We use the Active Directory to authenticate VPN users."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the Meraki dashboard, which is a single pane of glass."
"The internet traffic shaping has been very valuable."
"Its ease of configuration and management is very useful for us and for other companies that don't have an onsite IT person. It is easy to configure and easy to manage. It is easy to configure the VPN with the Auto VPN feature."
"The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement."
"At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing."
"To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
"Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"Meraki MX firewalls are great for small to medium-sized businesses, but other solutions are better for enterprise-sized companies."
"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."
"They need to improve the link between Meraki and Active Directory."
"More detail needed for configuration of the VPN."
"The IPS, the Intrusion Prevention System, can be improved."
"Expensive licensing and firewall stops immediately working if the license is not renewed at expiration date."
"You can only have one tunnel in the whole infrastructure — one tunnel with one device."
"The client-side VPN is weak. The product could be improved with deployment templates."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 59 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Meraki MX is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox and Check Point NGFW, whereas Meraki MX is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos XG, SonicWall TZ and Netgate pfSense. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Meraki MX report.
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definitely the FortiGate , I can assist you with configuration and support if needed .
I recommend that using a Sonicwall as the peripheral firewall as you can easily configure the firewall rules to block certain countries. Its ease of use and SSL inspection and many other features and reporting features are more than sufficient for a small company.
You don't need a dedicated IT department, Sonicwall provide cloud-based support services that can assist you 24hrs/ 7 days.
To enhance the firewall protection further, we also deploy ZoneAlarm and webroot security firewalls at the desktops level. We also have several firewalls routers to safeguard very important servers, giving an onion-like "layers defense" structure.
We have Meraki Mx devices now, we are looking to replace them. But that is because the Meraki MX platform lacks SSL Inspection, Granular Firewall rules (Block only, no allow setting), client vpn relies on windows vpn setup (we would prefer a software solution).
But when we bought Meraki's we were switching from something with little to no visibility into the network. The visibility we got with the meraki and the content filtering and ability to block countries was quick and easy to setup. If we weren't looking to lock things down further, we would renew our Meraki's rather than replace them.
We are also looking at the fortigate series, but we would be using the latest generation - I think the 60f would be the newest of the 60 size.